Privatizing water : governance failure and the world's urban water crisis
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Privatizing water : governance failure and the world's urban water crisis
Cornell University Press, 2010
- : cloth
Available at 4 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [259]-296) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Water supply privatization was emblematic of the neoliberal turn in development policy in the 1990s. Proponents argued that the private sector could provide better services at lower costs than governments; opponents questioned the risks involved in delegating control over a life-sustaining resource to for-profit companies. Private-sector activity was most concentrated-and contested-in large cities in developing countries, where the widespread lack of access to networked water supplies was characterized as a global crisis.
In Privatizing Water, Karen Bakker focuses on three questions: Why did privatization emerge as a preferred alternative for managing urban water supply? Can privatization fulfill its proponents' expectations, particularly with respect to water supply to the urban poor? And, given the apparent shortcomings of both privatization and conventional approaches to government provision, what are the alternatives? In answering these questions, Bakker engages with broader debates over the role of the private sector in development, the role of urban communities in the provision of "public" services, and the governance of public goods. She introduces the concept of "governance failure" as a means of exploring the limitations facing both private companies and governments.
Critically examining a range of issues-including the transnational struggle over the human right to water, the "commons" as a water-supply-management strategy, and the environmental dimensions of water privatization-Privatizing Water is a balanced exploration of a critical issue that affects billions of people around the world.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Privatization and the Urban Water CrisisPart I. Development, Urbanization, and the Governance of Thirst
1. Governance Failure: Reframing the Urban Water Supply Crisis
2. Material Emblems of Citizenship: Creating Public Water
3. Watering the Thirsty Poor: The Water Privatization Debate
4. Citizens without a City: The Techno-Politics of Urban Water GovernancePart II. Beyond Privatization: Debating Alternatives
5. Protesting Privatization: Transnational Struggles over the Human Right to Water
6. Commons versus Commodities: The Ambiguous Merits of Community Water-Supply Management
7 Politics and Biopolitics: Debating Ecological GovernanceConclusion: Beyond PrivatizationNotes
References
Index
by "Nielsen BookData"